In The Giver, who are the people who care for others, closely monitor people, provide others with essential needs and are learning? How can they...

There are different types of caretakers in Jonas’s community. The Nurturers take care of infants in their first year. Babies are born to Birthmothers and assigned to family units at the Ceremony of One. From that point, mother and father figures take care of the children until they leave the family unit. There are also caretakers for the Old, who take care of the elderly before they are released.

Elders are the ones who observe the community and make sure the rules are enforced. They assign jobs to the Twelves and create family units by matching spouses and assigning them children.

During the past year he had been aware of the increasing level of observation. In school, at recreation time, and during volunteer hours, he had noticed the Elders watching him and the other Elevens. He had seen them taking notes. (Ch. 2)

Elders observe the general goings-on in the community, and they make changes to the rules if they are necessary. If the Elders need help making a decision, they confer with the Receiver of Memory. The Receiver only advises. He does not have any actual power, even though it is considered a position of great honor.

The needs of everyone in the community are provided for. Everyone gets food, medication, clothing, and everything else from the community. Jonas describes the community’s furniture.

Furniture was standard throughout the community: practical, sturdy, the function of each piece clearly defined. A bed for sleeping. A table for eating. A desk for studying. (Ch. 10)

The children are learning until they have finished training for their assignments. From age Three to Eleven, they are in formal school. After school they are cared for at the Recreation Centers. At age Twelve, the children are given assignments and then become apprentices. The training completion depends on the level of technical expertise needed for the assignment, but the children slowly attend regular school less and job training more.

The community decided at some point in the past that they could achieve a Utopia, or perfect world, through Sameness. This essentially means that there are strict rules for behavior and expectations for citizens, and anyone who does not fit in is eliminated. They decided lethal injection, called release, was the most efficient way.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

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